


Love is Dead

by Kaysigns



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Deceit | Janus Sanders Being an Idiot, Fluff, Ghost!Janus, Ghosts, M/M, Morality | Patton Sanders Being an Idiot, Morally Neutral Deceit | Janus Sanders, Reincarnation, at least at the beginning, first time really writing a fic that isnt virgil-centric yay, he'll be kinda mean in the first 2 or 3 chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:41:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26397343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaysigns/pseuds/Kaysigns
Summary: After Janus dies, he's willing do anything necessary to keep his old home, no matter how many people try to move in. Even if those people are bubbly strawberry blond boys with the ability to be completely oblivious to all his scare tactics. He'll make him move out eventually. It's not like he enjoyed that idiot's presence or anything.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Logic | Logan Sanders, Deceit | Janus Sanders/Morality | Patton Sanders
Comments: 35
Kudos: 116





	1. First Impressions

Janus watched from his attic as the car pulled up into the driveway. So the last family didn’t learn their lesson, did they? How wonderful. He huffed, watching as twin children ran out of the car and chased each other across his lawn. Well, at least he’ll have an easy scare, that might help get them out sooner.

The first to walk into his house was a young man, possibly the eldest son of the family. His strawberry blonde hair was put up into a small bun at the back of his head, and he was humming a quiet tune as he carried his boxes in. For having just walked into a haunted house, he was annoyingly cheery.

As he walked past a mirror in the hallway, Janus caused it to shatter, the loud sound startling the man for a moment. He stared at the broken mirror, brows furrowed, before simply shrugging and continuing on to the kitchen. Janus groaned, following him along.

As the cheery man was about to open the cupboard Janus had the door swing open and smack him in the forehead. The man yelped, sounding very much like a kicked puppy as he rubbed his head, looking at the cupboard with confusion.

“Well that was weird.” He mumbled to himself, before going back to putting away their cups and plates. Even when Janus did it a second time, the man didn’t think too much of it. How annoying.

Janus knew he should have just moved on to another member of their family by now, but for some reason this man captivated him. He had tried all of his more subtle tricks that usually get people on edge, but to no avail. He couldn’t have gotten worse between his last scare and now, that wouldn’t make sense. There was something about him.

He watched as the man put his room together, listening to some music as he partially organized and partially danced around, looking like a complete buffoon. Janus couldn’t help but cringe as he watched, eventually looking away to maintain any small fragment of respect he might have had towards this man. Besides, a gentleman doesn’t watch people do things they’d only do alone, and he, despite being dead, was very much a proper gentleman.

* * *

The family consisted of four children and their two parents, and Janus took pride in learning all their names and what their occupations were on the first day. The parents worked for a majority of the day, one as a doctor and the other as a lawyer, so simply scaring them into leaving would be a bit difficult. He would have to rely on scaring the children.

The twins Roman and Remus were the youngest at eight, young enough to still be able to see spirits. He had thought he would be able to use that to his advantage, until Remus spotted him. Instead of screaming for his parents he had simply looked Janus over and waved with one of those annoying child smiles on his face. So clearly he wouldn’t be able to use any scare tactics on him. The second twin was still a viable option, however.

The second oldest was a teenager named Virgil. Janus had seen him for five seconds before he disappeared into his room. And, strangely enough, the teen had lined his room with salt, smoky quartz, and amethyst crystals; Janus couldn’t get in no matter how hard he tried. 

However from the way Virgil’s parents spoke about him, the teen was dealing with a lot of anxiety from the move and was clearly struggling through it. Janus would gladly use that to his advantage, if he ever manages to get into his room. Not the most morally right thing, but that had never stopped him before.

And then there was 20 year old Patton. Same age as Janus when he died, which he found to be interesting. He was apparently in college to be a vet; Janus was already imagining what he could do with that information. If he wanted to, he could kill a stray cat and hang it in Patton’s room, but even he wouldn’t be so cruel as to kill an animal. A human, on the other hand, was still a viable option, but he would have to see who in the family he hated the most first.

As the sun began to set, he watched Patton begin to get ready for bed. What made this man different to the others that moved into Janus’s home? He decided to do one last scare of the night.

With a wave of his hand, the bathroom lights began to flicker, the medicine cabinet’s door flying open and closed. Patton jumped, staring wide-eyed at the display. Janus slowly brought it to a halt, a proud grin on his face as he watched expectantly.

“Looks like the lightbulb needs to be changed...” Patton thought aloud to himself. Janus’s eyes widened as he watched the man walk out of the bathroom, grab a new lightbulb, and switch out the old one, looking very proud of himself while he did it. He then checked the medicine cabinet, seeming to deem it normal as he continued on with his business.

Janus was starting to understand his interest in Patton. The man was unbelievably idiotic and was unaware of his own stupidity. This will be interesting.


	2. Sibling Rivalry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Janus tells a gruesome story to Roman while trying to figure out why Patton looked so cute

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be honest, this went all kinds of ways that I hadn't expected, but I'm fine with it

A week had gone by of Janus simply observing the family. They got along well with each other, and clearly trusted each other quite a bit. If he did something truly awful to one of them, the rest would surely believe it and decide to move out.

He spent most of his time observing Patton. He wasn’t sure why; Patton wasn’t even the one in the house most often. It would be much more interesting to try and find a way into Virgil’s room, and to get a proper look at the teen.

But  _ no _ , he just  _ had _ to watch this idiot study for three hours straight. That was what he had decided to spend his afterlife doing. As he sat on Patton’s desk, watching his blue eyes glance between his book and laptop, he couldn’t help but study him further.

Not just blue eyes, the color of a bright blue sky on a perfect day, the kind of day his mother would have forced him out of the house to enjoy. His shoulder-length strawberry blonde hair appeared soft and fluffy; Janus was tempted to reach out his hand and run his fingers through it. The freckles covering his cheeks looked perfect enough to have been painted by the gods themselves and—

Janus shook himself out of his stupor, confused by his own thoughts. What was he doing? What was he thinking? Why was he thinking those things? He drew in a deep breath, trying to calm his suddenly racing mind.

This was fine. It wasn’t unusual to find the person you absolutely despise to be at least a bit attractive, right? Janus hated the moron’s guts, but he still had the ability to tell when someone’s cute. Yes, this was fine. Why bother overthinking it? Overthinking got him nowhere.

He watched Patton for a bit longer, before the thoughts began to truly disturb him, and he had no other choice but to leave. He drifted into the kitchen, seeing Virgil with his hoodie covering his face grab a bag of chips before making his way back to his room. Janus floated after him, trying to follow him in, only to smack face first into his salt-crystal combo barrier. Something was definitely weird with that kid.

He opted to watch the twins instead; perhaps he could get a scream out of Roman.

But, after floating through the twins’ wall he realized: Roman screams a lot already. Remus was cackling with childish glee as he smacked his brother over and over with his foam sword. “Get off of me!” Roman screeched.

“Say that I won!”

“You cheated!”

“I won though!” Remus glanced up for a moment, eyes locking onto Janus, and his smile widened. “Mr. Ghost! Tell him I won!” Roman looked up to see who Remus was talking to, staring for a moment at Janus, before his eyes teared up and he began to cry and scream even louder.

“Oh come now, is the crying really necessary?” Janus sighed, moving closer to the two. Roman finally managed to worm his way out from under Remus, grabbing his pillow off his bed and chucking it at Janus. Obviously, it passed right through him.

“Evil see-through man!” Roman shouted, pointing accusingly at him.

“What made you think I’m evil?”

“The blood?” Janus glanced down at the bloody, torn cloak he had died in. Maybe now was his chance.

“Would you like to know how this happened?” He asked darkly.

“Can I touch it first?” Remus chirped.

“No.” He glared down at Remus for a moment, before regaining his composure, taking a seat on Roman’s bed. “You see, I was the owner of this house once. I inherited it from my father, actually. One night I was at the local theater rehearsing for a play.” His lips pulled into a sly smile.

“I remember you saying you wanted to be an actor one day, is that correct Roman?” The kid nodded hesitantly.

“I was rehearsing for this play, and invited my best friend home with me, home to this very house. He was meant to be my stand-in for if I were too sick to perform. I went up into the attic of this house to find some props we had needed for the play.” Janus ran a hand across his bloody chest and stomach, pausing for a moment to create some tension.

“When I turned around, there he was, holding a knife and with his eyes wide and manic. Then he ran at me and sunk his blade into my heart!” Roman whimpered, Janus simply continued.

“He stabbed me a few more times for good measure, then watched as I bled out. And that’s why, young man, you should be careful trusting. Anyone could be willing to kill for what you have. Maybe even your own twin.”

That’s what did Roman in. He glanced at Remus nervously, who decided to push his fear even further by lifting his foam sword in what seemed in Roman’s mind to be a threatening manner. He ran out the room screaming for Virgil, the sound of the teen’s door slamming open and closed ringing through the hall.

Janus smiled, proud of himself. While scaring a child wasn’t very impressive, it would help him get his house back. And that’s all he truly cared about. Patton peeked into the room, blinking in confusion as he looked around.

“Remus, what did you say to Roman?”

“Mr. Ghost said it, not me!”

“Okay...and what did Mr. Ghost say?”

“He said he was stabbed to death! Like this!” Remus proceeded to stab the air with his sword. Patton nodded slowly, concern in his eyes. He cleared his throat awkwardly.

“Okay, well uh...Mr. Ghost?” It was more than a little obvious Patton wasn’t actually trying to talk to Janus, but the idea that he was made the spirit listen.

“Please don’t tell Roman...or Remus about being stabbed? I’d really appreciate it.” The confusion in his tone made Janus want to laugh. He really had no idea what was going on, did he? The concern was a bit cute, though, he had to admit. Maybe he shouldn’t try and scare the twins—

No, the concern of an idiot shouldn’t faze him. He had no reason to care what he thought. Absolutely none.

The idiot in question then smiled brightly, coaxing his brother into putting down his sword and coming into the kitchen to prepare lunch with him. His smile was so frustrating. Janus went back to his attic, leaning against a dusty box with a huff. Why was he thinking of Patton’s smile? It was such a ridiculous thing to think about.

The idea of someone smiling at him like that was a pleasant one, though.

Maybe he’ll put aside all his plans for the twins for later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll try to start adding new chapters each Thursday, I didn't this week because I got swamped with school stuff then got sad on Friday but yeet


	3. crushcrushcrush

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Janus goes about watching Patton, he finally admits that something's off about how he sees him

Okay, fine. Perhaps the way he looked at Patton was a bit...unusual compared to how he had looked at previous house owners his age. Perhaps Patton tended to catch his attention the moment he entered the room a bit more often than he’d like to admit. And perhaps Janus’s long-dead heart tended to do something akin to “fluttering” whenever Patton looked in his direction.

But that didn’t mean he liked that dolt. This reaction was simply something that came out of his anger towards him. His heart fluttered with rage; yes that was it.

Patton was singing as he cooked dinner with his mother, and gosh, his voice was so awful Janus couldn’t stop listening to it. He watched Patton set the table and run down the hall for his siblings.

Janus decided to leave; he felt odd listening in on their glorified family meetings. As he fazed through the wall to head to his attic, he passed by Virgil, the teen’s head ducked too low to see his face, his eyes glued to his phone and earbuds in. If the kid would just look up for once that’d be nice. He scoffed, floating into his cold attic.

His previous plan had been futile. As scared as Roman had been of his tale, Virgil and Patton refused to believe it. Janus lied down on the ground, scowling as he closed his eyes. Patton, ruining his plans. All he wanted was his house back. But at this point he was tempted to haunt that Patton for the rest of eternity.

Haunt maliciously, of course. Why would he haunt any other way?

* * *

Janus watched with a deadpan stare as Patton scrambled around for a book to crush the spider in his room with. It was less than half an inch in size, why was he panicking so much? The blond grabbed one of his college textbooks, taking a deep breath before holding it out, hyping himself up.

Then with an almost pathetic whimper he stepped away, putting the book down and running for Virgil. Janus smirked, studying the spider. It wasn’t a deadly one; Janus wondered if a bite from it would even do anything.

But still, the amount of panic it had caused concerned him. He didn’t like seeing Patton scared, and that realization annoyed him to some degree. Why would Patton’s fear make him upset? He should be using this as an opportunity to scare him even more! He should find as many spiders as he can and fill the room with them! Maybe have one crawl on Patton as he sleeps!

He groaned. Fear wasn’t a good look on the idiot. He had the book levitate above the spider, letting it drop and crush the small creature underneath. Patton came running in soon after, being followed by a much slower Virgil, who was still pulling off his headphones and pausing his music.

Janus took his leave, just in time to hear Patton’s confused hum as he passed through the wall.

* * *

Patton was curled up under his blankets, quiet snores coming from his lips as Janus awaited the inevitable beeping of the alarm. Watching Patton scramble to hit it in his groggy, barely awake state had started to become his morning entertainment. Six o’clock hit, and his alarm clock began to blare. Patton whined, a hand reaching out lazily as he smacked at his bedside table for a moment, finding his alarm clock and almost knocking it off.

He lied there for a moment, long enough for Janus to take note of the glasses on his head. He remembered seeing the man study late into the night; perhaps he had simply forgotten to take them off.

Patton let out a deep breath, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. He swung his legs over the side of his bed, a hand reaching over to the bedside table and patting around. With a confused face he looked over, squinting as he studied the area.

“Did I knock them down?” He asked himself quietly. He slowly slid off his bed, getting on his hands and knees and beginning to search around the table.

Ah. He thought he lost his glasses. Janus sighed, watching him as he continued to search around, being very careful as he moved to make sure he wasn’t going to break the glasses he was looking for. A whole ten minutes went by of Patton slowly making his way around his entire room trying to find the glasses resting on his head.

He looked so ridiculous. Janus couldn’t stand watching him, but at the same it really amused him seeing him do something so strange. He chuckled, relenting and deciding to give him a bit of help.

As Patton turned in his direction, he had the glasses slip down a bit to be resting on the bridge of his nose, even taking a bit more energy to straighten them to be sitting properly. Patton flinched, startled to see his vision suddenly go clear. He sat up quickly, grabbing at his face and taking the glasses off. He stared in bewilderment for a moment, before letting out a relieved laugh and putting them back on.

As he began to get ready for the day, Janus left to see what everyone else in the house was up to.

* * *

He had successfully scared Roman a second time with another story from when he was alive. Granted, a large amount of it had been made up, but the basic elements were all true. Roman had run off to Patton, and Janus had left to rest in the attic. He had just begun to doze off when a loud bang erupted from the trapdoor.

He glared at it as it opened, gaze softening as he saw a beautiful face appear from below.

He shook his head, his cheeks flushing—from annoyance, he believed—as he watched Patton look around, shining his flashlight into every shadow of Janus’s attic. “See, Ro? There’s no one here. It’s okay.”

“Mr. Ghost is up there! I know it! He told me!” The child shouted up. Patton sighed, climbing up and taking a closer look around.

Janus watched as Patton looked around, passing right past him as he went to look in the corner the ghost usually slept in. Janus moved out of his way whenever he would come too close; he didn’t want to give the blond any cold chills or anything. Patton hummed, seeing nothing unusual. Janus breathed a sigh of relief as Patton went back to the trapdoor.

He should do something to freak Roman out a bit more, though. Just to keep the kid paranoid. Without really thinking he attempted to make the trapdoor slam shut. Patton wasn’t low enough down, though. With a yelp the door smacked Patton hard in the head, causing him to lose his grip on the ladder for a moment before clinging on for dear life.

“Shit!” Janus hissed, flying to Patton’s side almost instinctively. The man rubbed his head with a groan; Janus wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up with some kind of bruise there with all the force that had been behind that door. He looked around for something that could help take away his pain, before realizing something.

Looking over Patton, he held out his hand, putting it on his head gently, passing through the live hand already there. His ice cold aura caused Patton to shiver, but his groans and whimpers immediately quieted down. Patton’s eyebrows scrunched together, looking around and through Janus for a moment, before slowly making his way down the ladder.

While Janus hadn’t helped him much, he had made for a good temporary ice pack. As Patton made it to the bottom of the ladder, he said a simple “There’s probably some kind of draft up there. It  _ is _ pretty windy today!” to his wide-eyed brother, who simply stared up at Janus as the trapdoor closed and as Patton walked away.

But the ghost had barely noticed any of that. He had been too preoccupied with his racing thoughts.

He had touched Patton. Well, not exactly  _ “touched”  _ in the normal way, but they had touched all the same. For a moment, Janus had felt the warmth of life again. Not just life, but Patton’s life, Patton’s warmth.

It was a feeling he wanted to experience for the rest of Patton’s life, if he could. A smile crossed his lips. Okay, fine...perhaps he did have a thing for that dolt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the little dumbass finally figured it out :D


	4. Call For Attention

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Janus attempts to get Patton's attention, but instead grabs the attention of a certain teenager

Ugh. Love. It was a strange thing to feel after so long of not experiencing it. He hadn’t loved someone since he was alive, and he’s been dead for a while. Still though, his heart longed to be with Patton, to spend each passing moment with him. As far as he was aware he was chained to his house, unable to leave. Otherwise he probably would’ve followed Patton to college.

He needed to get his attention in some way. Which meant he had to make him realize there was a ghost in the house. Which was not too far from what he had been trying to do from the start, except instead of striking terror into the human’s heart to get him to leave, he would have to get him to notice his presence without being scared.

While having an air of familiarity, this still felt completely new to the spirit.

Janus ran through his list of less violent or terrifying options, admittedly coming up with fairly few; he had found out early on in his hauntings that those options often didn’t work nearly as well as his more deranged ideas. But, he came up with a decent amount.

As Patton was taking his shower, Janus floated into the room, keeping his eyes trained on the fogged up mirror (he was a gentleman, remember?) as he thought of what to write. So many options, and he hadn’t flirted in so long.

He racked his brain for something creative or smooth, but Patton had already stopped singing; he was going to get out soon. Janus panicked, giving up and writing a simple “hello” with a small heart before flying out, face burning red. He waited outside of the bathroom, listening as Patton stepped out of the shower, hearing his pause as he read the message.

On the other side of the door, Patton giggled. “Very funny Virgil.” What the hell. What did that even mean? Patton changed into his new pair of clothes and came out, knocking on Virgil’s door as he went. “So we’re back to the whole “ghost following you” joke? It’s been four years, Vee!”

“What?” Virgil’s muffled voice came from the other side of the door.

“Y’know, when you told me there was a ghost following the two of us around the house?”

“Okay well first off, you can’t tell me there wasn’t a ghost back then, second, I didn’t do anything.”

“Sure you didn’t.” Patton said in a teasing tone, giggling and walking back to his room.

Okay, so Janus had just accidentally copied some kind of inside joke they had. Great. Wonderful. Guess he’d be taking mirror-related ideas off his list. Which meant he now had half of his previous ideas to choose from. He groaned, thinking for a moment. Maybe dreams would work.

* * *

He sat at the edge of Patton’s bed as he focused with all his might. Ever since he learned about this ability, he hadn’t been quite fond of it. But he had learned that it tended to elicit some of the most extreme reactions if done properly.

He remembered one of the previous house owners who enjoyed writing a lot of romantic stories. She would often write the hanahaki disease into her stories in some way, shape, or form. For some reason, that was all Janus could think of as he passed dreams into Patton’s mind. And as such, that was what Patton received.

He dreamed of a faceless, figureless man; having never actually seen Janus his mind wasn’t sure what to do with the information the spirit was passing into it. The man stepped up to him, laying a gentle hand on his cheek. He opened his mouth and flowers fell out into Patton’s hands. “Hello Pa—”

And that’s when his alarm went off. Janus scrambled out of his focused state, falling off of and partially through the bed as he tried to get as far away from the noise-maker as possible. Patton groaned, smacking the alarm clock until it turned off and lying there for a moment.

“That was a weird dream.” Patton mumbled sleepily to himself. “The flowers were pretty though.” Janus watched as Patton slowly forced himself up and out of his room, then watched as the door closed, leaving him in the bedroom alone.

“Fuck!” He shouted. Why was that blasted alarm set to go off so early? Who in their right mind took college classes at six AM? What was that stupid, good for nothing, handsome as hell man doing taking classes at six in the fucking morning? If it hadn’t gone off maybe he could have at least told him his name!

Janus took a deep breath, tempted to scream out his frustrations. But no, that would be uncivilized, and Janus was a civilized gentleman.

Instead he slammed his head into Patton’s pillow and screamed into that, the scent of that idiot’s shampoo making him even more frustrated by the second. What else could he try?

* * *

Granted, Janus didn’t have many ideas. He sent more dreams, but as it turned out Patton wasn’t one to think too much about what his dreams may mean. He attempted to write a letter, but was unable to focus his power on the pen long enough to write anything past “my dearest Patton” legibly. In one of his most recent attempts, he sent kittens padding at Patton’s window, only to find out Patton was severely allergic.

Which was what led him to this. Patton was off at college, which meant the chances of someone coming into his room were slim. He stared at the blank wall above the bed, his hand over the never-ending spout of blood pouring from his heart.

He had written in his own blood before to scare previous home owners, it wasn’t something new to him. He knew that his blood being more spiritual would mean it would fade away after a few days, unable to stay visible to the living for too long, but a few days was more than enough time.

He couldn’t write a letter to Patton, so this would have to do. He drenched his fingers in his blood, beginning to write.  _ “Dearest Patton—” _

The bedroom door swung open and Virgil walked in, headphones on and hoodie up as usual, searching around on Patton’s desk. “Are you serious?” Janus hissed. Virgil grabbed a set of Copic Markers from Patton’s desk with a smirk, turning around to head back to his room.

But then he stopped, eyes trailing up from the bed to look at the bloody words on the wall. Wait, no. He wasn’t looking at the words. The wound in Janus’s heart began to throb, as if the knife that was sunk into it so long ago had stabbed him again with a vengeance.

The face of Patton’s younger brother, the face of a younger form of Janus’s murderer looked directly at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the next few chapters are gonna be fun


	5. Do You Remember Me?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Janus and Virgil come to a hesitant truce

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this took a while, I spent the past two weeks binge-rewatching Unus Annus then felt weird after it ended

It made no sense. He didn’t understand. Why was he here? How could he see him? Janus had never met a human who could see spirits before! Why him of all people?

The two stared, unblinking at one another, Janus attempting to find any sort of clue that that murderer recognized him. All he saw were eyes empty of emotion, still trying to process what he was seeing.

But then it clicked, and the empty eyes were filled with panic. “Oh fuck no!” He shouted, the markers falling to the ground as he sprinted out the door, shouting “Mom, get the banishing herbs and black salt!”

“Virgilius Angel Sanders, we are not doing this again!” His mom shouted back. Admittedly curious, Janus followed Virgil down the hall. Virgil noticed and cursed some more, running into his room, leaving the door wide open. Janus pressed his hand against the magical shield that Virgil had put up, peering in to see what the young murderer was doing.

He grabbed a spray bottle from the corner of his room, turning around and facing Janus with a now-determined look on his face. Virgil sprayed the water right at him; he was fully ready to laugh and watch the mist pass through him.

But then droplets touched his face, like bits of lava raining down. He was too startled at first to realize he was in pain. He had forgotten what pain felt like, after so long. Virgil sprayed him a second time, and that’s when it registered. He hissed, eyes squinting shut as he reeled back, floating away as the murderer began to follow him down the hall, that determined look still in his eyes.

“Leave or I’ll spray you again. Trust me, I’ll know if you decide to just hide.” He glared down at the teen. This teenager, this  _ child, _ with the face of the man who killed him, was telling him, a full grown dangerous apparition what to do? He wasn’t having that.

The lights flickered around him, pictures and paintings floated up off the walls. Taking a deep breath, he prepared to aim it all at his murderer; consider it a bit of revenge for what he did.

But then Virgil sprayed him again. Everything dropped to the floor, the lightbulbs above them shattered, the glass over the pictures breaking on the ground.

“What was that?” Patton’s mom asked sternly. For a moment Virgil panicked.

“It was the ghost, Mom!” An audible sigh came from the living room, and the mother came over to see what the ruckus was. Seeing the shattered glass around him, she gave him a disappointed, clearly upset look. “Virgil—”

“I swear it was the ghost.”

“Virgil, this is the third time in a row.”

“But—”

“Three different houses, and you said they were all haunted!”

“Because they were! I mean the second one wasn’t, but it basically was.” The look in her eyes said that she had heard this all before and was trying to act like she hadn’t. With another sigh she gestured for him to follow her. “Come on, I’m making you some calming tea, okay?”

“But it’s right there! I can get it out!” Virgil pointed at Janus, who recovered enough from the burning spray to give the teen a victorious smug smirk.

“I’m sure it is, sweety, now come on. You can do your ghostbusting later.” Virgil sent a glare at Janus, and for a moment he looked exactly like the last thing Janus had seen before he died. Janus’s blood boiled; he needed to do something with that little murderer. He didn’t care if Virgil remembered who he was or not, that face alone was enough for him.

The reminder that he was Patton’s little brother was the only thing stopping him from outright killing the brat then and there. Patton’s little brother dying would make Patton sad, and he didn’t want that. So instead, he would have to resort to annoying the living hell out of him.

He followed Virgil into the kitchen, floating in the corner of his vision. Virgil tried to spray him, but then his mom took away his spray bottle with a simple “you’ll get this back after you’ve had your tea, young man.” The visible frustration on his face made Janus laugh, which only pissed him off even more.

Janus took a seat next to him at the dining table. His mom brought over two steaming hot cups of tea, both smelling strongly of lavender, and placed one in front of her son. “Has school been stressing you out?”

“Just the usual amount.” He responded bluntly, glaring at Janus as he took a long sip of his tea.

“Relationship troubles?”

“I’m not dating anyone, Mom.”

“Really? You seem to be getting really close to that friend of yours.”

“We’re not dating behind your back, Mom.”

“Okay, but if you were dating—”

“Mom!”

“Who is this friend of yours?” Janus asked with a grin. Virgil seemed ready to shout at him, before remembering he was the only one able to see him. That wouldn’t help convince his mom he was okay at all. The woman in question looked her son up and down, trying to piece together what could possibly be making him so tense.

“If there’s anything going on, you can tell me, okay?”

“I know.”

“Good. Now finish up your tea, it’s gonna get cold.” Virgil huffed, taking another sip.

“Your little exorcism attempt turned into a talk with your mother, how strange. This is why children shouldn’t be trying any of this.” The teen ignored him. “I could kill you if I wanted to. I hope you’re aware of that.” Virgil eyed his spray bottle, now sitting on the kitchen counter next to the tea kettle.

“Any spirit could come in and kill you at any time, so long as you're out of your room. The only thing protecting you from spirits coming in is me.” Janus earned a small glance, barely an indicator that he was being heard, but enough to know Virgil was confused. He gave him a sly smile.

“Oh, poor naive child. Are you not aware of the protection house spirits give? This is why your whole idea of “banishing” a spirit is completely idiotic. House spirits are the only thing protecting you.” Of course, Janus was making half of this up. He didn’t know a thing about other spirits or whether he could keep them out of his house or not. He had never met another, though, so he supposed it wasn’t too wild of a story to weave.

Virgil finished off his tea, washing out the cup and grabbing his spray bottle, saying a quick thanks to his mom before walking out into the hallway, beginning to clean up the broken glass.

“I’m the only protection someone as inexperienced as you has. If you were to successfully banish me...then what would you do?”

“You’re still a ghost, why wouldn’t I try and get you out of here?” Virgil spoke in a quiet voice, making sure his mom wouldn’t hear him talking to himself.

“Like I said, I provide protection.”

“I literally saw you writing in blood on Pat’s wall. I don’t believe you.”

“Don’t you think I would’ve hurt one of your brothers by now?” At that he went quiet. Sure, there had been some really strange things happening, but never anything actually harmful. And he had to admit, Janus was the tamest ghost he had met so far. He huffed, brushing some glass shards onto his dust pan.

“Okay, fine. We can work something out, I guess.” He thought for a moment, eyeing Janus before grabbing his spray bottle. “But if you do anything I don’t like, you’re gettin’ the holy water.” Janus looked at the brownish-green tint of the herb-filled water in the bottle.

“That does not look like holy water in any way.”

“Shut up. I still don’t like you.”

“And I despise you. But I suppose we’ll have to find a way to work together again, won’t we Cain?”

“What?”

Janus hadn’t been able to keep down his curiosity. “Do you remember anything? What you did to me in this very house?” Virgil gave him a blank stare, before turning back to the glass on the ground.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“So you don’t remember cornering me in the attic and brutally murdering me?”

“The  _ hell _ are you talking about?” Janus hummed, satisfied enough with the teen’s confusion. Cain had never been a good liar, and he didn’t expect a reincarnated version of him to be either, if that is what this was.

“Very well then. Perhaps we’ll be able to get along after all.”

“I doubt that.”

“Once a pessimist, always a pessimist, Cain.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> they have a lot more to talk about, but they'll get to that eventually


	6. Little Chat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Virgil puts the pieces together and decides to have a little talk with Janus

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if it feels like I just awkwardly shoehorned Remy into the story, it's because I did. I needed someone else to be there with Logan and Virgil because of that off-hand comment Virgil's mom made in the last chapter that suggests Virgil has a crush on one of his friends. Remy's the friend she's talking about. I'm not gonna say why it couldn't be Logan because of reasons

“—and then he called me Cain and started acting all weird, and...are you even listening?” Remy held his coffee half-way to his lips, completely zoned out. Logan hummed, flipping another page in his book.

“So you look similar to someone this spirit of yours knew in the past?”

“Exactly. Maybe it’s something like reincarnation. We could’ve been rivals in the past or something.” Logan sighed, glancing at his watch to make sure their lunch period was long enough for the debate about life and death they were about to have.

“Virgil, we both know reincarnation doesn’t exist. It is much more likely that you just happen to look similar to whoever this Cain person is.”

“We don’t  _ know _ that reincarnation isn’t a thing! When a person dies, the soul leaves the body and goes into a new one.”

“That implies there is a finite amount of souls in the world.”

“Whatever. I’m the reincarnation of this Cain guy, and he did something to get Janus to hate him.” Virgil didn’t seem willing to get into this debate, it seemed.

“I suppose we can continue with that assumption.”

“So maybe to get him to pass on into the afterlife I have to...fix whatever I did to him?” The bell rang for lunch to be over. Remy blinked, confused as he looked around, then proceeded to complain about how no one snapped him out of his daze. Logan stuffed a bookmark into his book, knowing full well he would have to go back a page or two to know what was going on.

“If that is in fact how spirits work, then that is a possibility.”

* * *

Janus awoke to the bang of the attic trapdoor opening. He glared as Virgil climbed up, the spray bottle of DIY holy water in hand. The teen sat in front of him, cross-legged with the bottle aimed right at him, looking so innocent, yet so threatening at the same time.

“Is there something you need of me, Virgil?” He asked as calmly as he could. If the boy sprayed him he could just sink through the floor into the hallway, maybe even lock him in the attic for a bit; that would be fun.

“Just came up for a lil chat.” Janus hummed.

“And the spray bottle was necessary for that?”

“Yep. So what did I do to you in a past life?”

“Why are you asking?” Virgil shook the spray bottle, a small smirk on his face.

“Ah. So you’re planning on torturing information out of me.” Virgil blinked.

“What? I’m not torturing you, I’ll just be spraying you if you don’t tell me.”

“Oh, of course, of course.” Janus drawled sarcastically. “Definitely not the same thing.”

“Just answer the fucking question.”

“I told you before, you murdered me.” Virgil’s expression stayed the same, dull eyes with the slightest hint of curiosity and confusion in them, but the grip on his spray bottle tightened. “I don’t believe that.”

“You have me at spiritual gunpoint, I have no reason to lie.” Virgil seemed unaware of Janus’s many escape routes. “You’re a murderer, Cain. In this life and the past.”

“Okay, so I killed you.” Virgil said with an annoyed huff. “How do I make it up to you?” Janus stared him down. Make up for killing him? The idea was absurd. How do you make up for ending a person’s life? He couldn’t help but laugh.

“What?” Virgil demanded. He gave a glare that turned him into the spitting image of Cain, and Janus went silent.

“Why do you want to make up for a past you’s crime? Especially a crime as serious as murder?” Virgil shifted awkwardly; he was clearly up to something.

“No reason.” He spoke far too bluntly. “Just thought it’d be good to clear any tension between us, y’know?” Janus hummed thoughtfully, looking Virgil up and down. Then it clicked.

“Are you hoping to get me to move on into the afterlife?” Virgil’s eyes widened, but he tried desperately to play it off.

“What made you think that?” His voice squeaked slightly; Janus relished in his panic.

“Oh Cain. I remember you being brighter than this. And a far better actor.” Virgil’s body was tense, and Janus was fully ready to mess with him a bit more. But then there was a knock on the trapdoor, and it was pushed open.

“Virgil? Dad said he saw you come up here like fifteen minutes ago, what are you doing in here?” Patton spoke, his face scrunching up in confusion as he saw Virgil “alone.”

“There’s a ghost here.”

“Really? Three houses in a row?”

“Yup. And this one’s real annoying.” Janus glared, attempting to slap Virgil across the face. His hand passed right through, a shiver going down Virgil’s spine. Patton giggled, deciding to entertain the thought.

“Are they at least cute?” Janus’s mind froze, the sentence echoing in his ears. Virgil noticed, but didn’t seem to pay much attention to it.

“Nah, he’s ugly as fuck.”

“Well that’s just mean, Vee!” He then looked in the vague area Janus was sitting in. “I bet you’re very handsome, Mr. Ghost.” Janus felt like he was about to move on to the afterlife just from that, nevermind getting revenge on his murderer! Patton just called him handsome—the poor idiot was unable to see Janus and was just saying it to be nice, but he didn’t really care. 

Virgil stared in confusion as he watched Janus’s cheeks get redder and redder, his eyes going as blank as his mind. Janus didn’t even notice when Patton left. Virgil waved a hand in front of the spirit’s face, and his blissful trance was gone.

“What?” He snapped. Virgil watched with furrowed brows as Janus’s cheeks slowly turned back to their pale dead tone.

“Do you have a thing for my brother?”

“No, I don’t.”

“Holy fuck, a ghost has a thing for my brother.”

“I do not!”

“Then why were you blushing? I didn’t even know ghosts  _ could _ blush!” Janus stammered, unable to come up with an excuse in his still fairly blank mind. But he could think of one thing. He cleared his throat, attempting to calm himself down.

“I’ll tell you what, Virgil. If you can get Patton to...acknowledge that I do indeed exist, let’s say, I will pass on.” Virgil rolled his eyes.

“I’m not letting you go all “Sex with a Ghost” on my brother.”

“If that’s a reference to something, I don’t know what it is. But here, allow me to elaborate.” Janus wanted Patton’s love and attention. It wasn’t what would get him to move on into the afterlife, but that was what Virgil wanted. So, why not fabricate something to get him to believe they’re both getting what they want?

“Cain and I used to be lovers. But then he betrayed me, and I bled out from his knife right where I’m sitting now.” Virgil hummed, looking him up and down.

“There is no way that I would’ve ever gotten with you.”

“We thought just the same, but then it happened. I believe the only way I can truly move on is if I find true love again, and Patton appears to be the only way to do that.” He spoke softly, so as to sound more convincing. And Virgil seemed to have a similar sort of idiocy as his brother, as he believed him after a bit of thought.

“...Okay, I guess. I do want you out of the house.” He sighed. “Fine. I’ll help you get with Patton, and then you’ll leave. That’s our deal.”

“Very well then.” Janus’s heart swelled with excitement, feeling a small step closer to Patton, but quickly contained it to maintain composure.

“You won’t be taking Patton into the afterlife with you, right?”

“I don’t think I’m capable of something like that.” Virgil nodded, still clearly hesitant of the whole idea.

“Okay, fine. Let’s woo my brother.”

“Excellent. Now what kind of flowers would he like?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be honest, I didn't expect to get one or two people theorizing about some of the stuff in this story. This story pretty much was just me wanting to write a fluffy Moceit ghost AU with a bunch of shenanigans and Patton being an idiot, so to see someone theorizing about there being a bit more elaborate of a story made me feel kinda like my original plan was gonna be disappointing. So I rewrote some of the plot for what's gonna happen later on and am hoping it'll end up working out well! I actually feel a lot better about what I have in store with this (and it helps fix a bit of plot I wasn't sure on how to get to work) so this is gonna be fun :p


	7. Flowers, Disney Princesses, and Possessing a Rock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan and Virgil come to the realization that there's a new predicament that gets just a little bit in the way of Janus getting with Patton: that being Janus and Patton even being able to communicate in the first place

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't know what else to call this chapter so you get that :p
> 
> Also reworked my posting schedule a little bit so hopefully expect new chapters every week on either a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday depending on how quickly I get it done.

“Patton!” Remus shrieked down the hall. He slammed into Patton’s bedroom door, ramming it open and jumping onto the bed, where Patton had been trying to get a few more minutes of sleep. The man in question groaned, rubbing his eyes as he turned to look at the child.

In his hands was a bouquet of bluebells, a bit messed up with some flowers looking out of place, but overall surprisingly intact for something given from Remus. Patton sat up, just as his brother slammed the bouquet into his arms. “Present for you!”

“Aww thanks, Rem. They’re very pretty, where’d you get them?”

“They’re from Mr. Ghost!” Patton nodded slowly along to that. Okay, so then maybe they were from Virgil. He was pretty sure one of his friends’ parents was a florist or something.

“Okay, well tell Mr. Ghost that I’m thankful and that this was really nice of him.”

“Okay!” Remus then ran to the doorway, where Janus had been watching intently. “He said that he’s thankful and—”

“Yes, I heard Remus.” Janus sighed, seeing that Patton still didn’t have a clue what was actually going on. He flew out, Remus following close behind, into the kitchen, where Virgil had been waiting for their response. He raised an eyebrow as Janus entered.

“Well?”

“He didn’t believe it.” Virgil nodded knowingly, taking a sip of his coffee.

“This is why I said I should be the one to give it to him.”

“Oh please. Remus has more charisma than you had or ever will, Cain.” Virgil glared.

“Remus is five.”

“Exactly my point.” Virgil pulled his spray bottle from his belt, having begun keeping it around, often zip tied to his side, at all times, spraying in Janus’s direction. The spirit quickly evaded, not losing any of his confident composure while he did.

“You got any other ideas then, loverboy?”

“I’m working on it. Now don’t you have school to go to?” Virgil blinked, checking his phone for the time. He cursed, slamming down his cup of coffee, haphazardly grabbing his backpack and binder before sprinting out the door faster than Janus had ever seen him move.

Janus shook his head at the teen’s idiocy. Time without him would do him good for brainstorming. He definitely had more options to go over now with a living human helping him. He looked down at Remus, who quickly pointed up at Virgil’s leftover drink. “He just left his coffee here, can I drink it?”

“No, no you can’t.” But he still had to deal with this nuisance for another hour before he left for kindergarten. Splendid.

* * *

Virgil made it just in time to the bus stop, panting heavily as he made his way to the very back to sit next to Logan. “You almost missed the bus, is everything alright?”

“Yep, just trying to get my brother to fall in love with a ghost.” Logan’s eyes went blank as he attempted to understand that.

“...Pardon?”

“Yeah, I’m confused too.”

“I’m assuming this is about this Janus you told me about earlier this week, correct?” Virgil put his backpack down on the floor, right as the bus began rumbling to life and driving off to school.

“Yep. He had me get him some flowers from Remy’s mom. Made me pay for it too, the piece of shit.”

“Well I’m assuming spirits don’t have any sort of money of their own.” Virgil ignored him.

“I’m helping a ghost woo my brother to get him to pass onto the afterlife, because we were lovers when we were alive, and then I killed him.” Virgil spoke slowly, taking it all in for a moment. “What the hell is my life?”

“I don’t remember you telling me of this whole “lovers in a past life” ordeal.”

“That’s what he told me. Said the only way to get him to pass on is if he felt love again or something. Like what is he, a Disney princess?”

“That does sound like the plot of one of the more traditional Disney movies.”

“Would I be like the evil villain then?” Logan hummed, pulling up a game of Tetris on his phone.

“I suppose you would be more like a side character, helping the metaphorical princess along her journey.” Virgil pulled a leg up to his chest, not really caring when it felt like the bus driver was giving him a dirty look in the mirror.

“I suppose there would have to be a villain if we’re truly talking about a traditional Disney movie.” Logan said after a moment of silence.

“There doesn’t always have to be a villain.”

“Ah, so we’ve switched beliefs since kindergarten.”

“I mean there’s sorta always a villain, but not always like a character that’s the villain.”

“So I’ve converted you to my side of the argument.” Virgil rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, I guess.” 

This was something they had argued about since they first met. They had first been brought together when their teacher had pointed out how similar they looked: same pale skin, same brown eyes, same black hair, even the same mole next to their eyes and gap in their teeth. If Logan hadn’t gotten glasses and Virgil hadn’t dyed his hair they would look almost like twins.

“If Patton ever does begin believing that Janus does in fact exist, how will he manage to fall in love with him?” Logan asked.

“What?”

“Patton can’t see or hear spirits. How can he fall in love with someone he can’t communicate with?” The realization hit Virgil like a brick. He hadn’t really thought of that.

“And even if you get past that hurdle and Patton does fall in love with Janus, won’t Janus immediately pass on? What would happen then?” Virgil stared into nothingness, the image of Patton, heartbroken and crying as his “true love” dissolves into light and disappears right before his eyes burning into his retinas. This was going to hurt Patton.

But Janus also showed how malicious he was. He wasn’t a good person, the amount of people he must have tormented out of their house showed that. So was it better for his big brother to be heartbroken for a couple of weeks or months if it meant that anyone who moved into that house after Virgil’s family would be safe from that shitlord? His logic couldn’t help but say yes.

“I’m sure he’ll be fine.” They arrived at school and began filing out of the bus. As they walked over to the school entrance, Virgil glanced down at the ground, pausing for a moment before crouching down on the grass.

On the ground was a grey rock speckled with black and white. Virgil picked it up and pocketed it, liking how it looked. Logan watched him before sighing, having seen his friend do this far too many times, waiting for Virgil to rejoin him before walking onto school campus.

* * *

Virgil came home with Roman and Remus in his dad’s car, seeing that Patton had already left for one of his college classes. Immediately he went up to the attic, knowing Janus would demand to talk to him. He pushed open the trapdoor, seeing Janus sitting with his fingers folded together under his chin.

“About time you got back.”

“What, did you think I could get back any faster? It’s school, not some sort of—”

“Excuses, excuses.” Janus waved his hand dismissively. “I came up with a few more ideas while you were away.”

“Yeah about that, can I ask something?” Without even giving Janus time to respond he continued. “How’re you gonna talk to Patton if we ever get him to believe you’re real?” Janus stared blankly.

“What?”

“He’s not gonna fall in love with someone he can’t see or hear, dude.” His eyes widened slightly, his head turning to the ground as his gaze flicked around on the attic floorboards, as if searching for an answer. “You didn’t think of that, did you?”

“I did!” He snapped, brow furrowed as he continued to think. “I’ll...tell you my plan for that after we get him to believe I exist.”

“Uh huh. Sure. So what ideas did you have?” Janus sighed, deciding to figure out that whole predicament another day.

“I’m going to personally hand Patton chocolate.” Virgil raised an eyebrow, picking off a small piece of splintered wood and chucking it at the spirit. As expected, it passed right through him.

“Can’t really hand anyone anything, don’t you think?” Janus had the piece of wood float into the air, flinging it at Virgil and hitting him square on the nose.

“ _ That _ is how I’ll hand it to him, except much more gently without an intent to cause harm.” Virgil winced, wiping away a small bit of blood coming from the small new cut on the tip of his nose.

“Okay, point proven. So you want me to get you chocolate?”

“I would, yes.”

“Alright.” He reached into his pocket, pulling out the monochrome rock and placing it in front of the spirit. “Attach to this.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Attach to this so you can come with me to the store.”

“What is that?”

“It’s a rock. I found it, it had your kind of vibes with it, I took it, now attach to it.” Virgil spoke bluntly, his eyes dull and completely serious.

“You’re asking me to possess a rock?” Virgil shrugged.

“I guess that’s basically what attaching is. So yeah, possess the rock.” Janus sighed, realizing the teen wouldn’t leave until he did this.

“If you lose this rock with me possessing it, I will kill you at the next chance I get.”

“If you annoy me too much out there, I will chuck this as far away as possible and flip you off as I watch your bodiless soul fly through the air.” Janus sent another piece of splintered wood at his face for that.

He felt his soul latch onto the rock, in a way similar to, yet at the same time nothing like possession. With possession you feel the life and emotions of the person you’re possessing. With a rock, obviously there isn’t really any life or feelings with that. All this made him question when he had possessed someone to know the difference.

He tried to recall; he must have possessed someone in the past, how else would he know how possession felt? All he could remember from that time was a flood of fear and horror from the living human’s end.

Perhaps he had simply possessed someone to get them out of his house. Yes, that must be it. It was probably nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> that awkward moment where you question whether it's worth hurting your brother or letting a ton of people be hurt by a morally grey spirit when the entire dilemma is caused by a complete lie told by said spirit in order to trick you into helping him get laid


End file.
